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Asian Women's Fund (18 July, 1995) ------58 The “Comfort Women” Issue and the Asian Women’s Fund Asian Women’s Fund Foreword Eight years have passed since the Asian Women’s Fund was established. The term “comfort women” refers to those who were forced to provide sexual services to officers and men of the former Japanese military at “comfort stations” during wartime in the past. This victimization, done with the involvement of the former Japanese military, gravely stained the honor and dignity of these women, and inflicted on them incurable physical and psychological pain. On 4 August 1993, the Chief Cabinet Secretary expressed the Japanese Government’s sincere feelings of remorse and apology to all who had suffered as wartime comfort women. Measures that would offer atonement were then sought. In July 1995, the Asian Women’s Fund was established as a way to offer the atonement of the Japanese Government and people through projects conducted in cooperation between the Japanese Government and the people. By September 2002, the Asian Women’s Fund had completed projects in the Netherlands, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan, offering the atonement of the Japanese Government to victims who had been forced to become comfort women. The women also received a letter from the Japanese Prime Minister, expressing feelings of apology and remorse and the determination to ensure that such a tragedy would never occur again. Although there is no way to bring back their youth, we believe that the letter and projects of atonement offered some solace to the victims, who are now advanced in years, in recovering their honor. Under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Indonesia, support has been given for projects conducted by that Government to develop social welfare facilities there for elderly people over a period of approximately 10 years, starting on 25 March 1997. The projects are now being implemented. The Asian Women’s Fund has also organized activities to ensure that the comfort women issue will serve as a lesson of history, and to raise awareness of the issue. The activities have been based on a determination that, through historical research and education, the Japanese people will never forget the issue or repeat the same mistakes. The Asian Women’s Fund is publishing this booklet to make known what it has learned about the comfort women issue and to report on the results of its projects. We hereby express our gratitude to many people who offered support and assistance to the projects both in Japan and overseas. We also, express our deep- felt appreciation to the many Japanese people who made contributions to the Fund which made this project possible. 1 Table of Contents 1. Who Were the “Comfort Women”? --------------------------------------------- 1 2. How Many Comfort Women Were There? ------------------------------------ 8 3. How did the Comfort Women Issue come to light? -------------------------12 4. Establishment of the Asian Women’s Fund, and the Basic Nature of its Projects -------------------------------------------------------------------------15 5. Projects in the Netherlands -----------------------------------------------------20 6. Projects in the Philippines -------------------------------------------------------25 7. Projects in the Republic of Korea ----------------------------------------------29 8. Projects in Taiwan ----------------------------------------------------------------33 9. Projects in Indonesia -------------------------------------------------------------37 10. Projects to Learn from History------------------------------------------------ 40 11. Now that the Atonement Projects Have Been Concluded--------------- 42 12. Appendices; Documents Relating to the Comfort Women Issue -------47 2 1. Who Were the “Comfort Women”? The so-called “wartime comfort women” were those who were taken to the “comfort stations” of the former Japanese military during wartime in the past, and forced to provide sexual services to officers and soldiers. The comfort stations were first established at the request of the Japanese military authorities, as part of war efforts in China. According to military documents, private agents first opened brothels for officers and men stationed in China, around the time of the Manchurian Incident in 1931. When the war spread to Shanghai after the First Shanghai Incident in 1932, the first naval comfort station was established for a Japanese naval brigade posted there. The number of comfort stations increased rapidly after the Sino-Japanese war broke out in 1937. It was apparently Yasuji Okamura, at that time the Vice Chief of Staff of the Shanghai Expeditionary Force, who first promoted the establishment of comfort stations for the Japanese army. There were apparently a number of reasons given for their establishment: Japanese military personnel had raped Chinese civilian women in occupied areas on numerous occasions, and the military hoped to prevent a worsening of anti-Japanese feelings on the part of the Chinese people; there was a need to prevent the spread of venereal diseases among officers and men, as otherwise military effectiveness would be reduced; and it was also feared that contact with Chinese civilian women could result in the leaking of military secrets. It has been reported that Naosaburo Okabe, who had served under Okamura as Senior Staff Officer of the Shanghai Expeditionary Force, was also involved in organizing the comfort station system. A written notification of warnings he sent on 27 June 1938, while acting as Chief of Staff of the North China Area Army, reads in part as follows: “According to various reports, the trigger causing such potent anti-Japanese sentiment is the widespread diffusion of news about rapes committed by Japanese military personnel in various areas. In fact, {these rapes} have fomented unexpectedly profound anti-Japanese feelings.” (Quoted from Yoshimi, Yoshiaki, “Comfort Women”, 2000, Columbia University Press; p54-55) And, elsewhere in the document: “Along with strict controls on soldiers’ individual behavior of the aforementioned type, the provision of facilities for sexual comfort as quickly as possible is of great 3 importance, {as it will} eliminate cases in which people violate the prohibition {on rape} for lack of facilities.” (Quoted from Yoshimi, Yoshiaki, “Comfort Women”, 2000, Columbia University Press; p55) Thus, comfort stations were established as a result of decisions made in those days at the expeditionary military headquarters. When the stations were constructed, the military would often designate certain people as business agents and commission them to bring women from the Japanese homeland. A written request dated 21 December 1937 from the Chief of Police at the Shanghai Consulate-General of Japan to the Chief of Marine Police in Nagasaki reads, in part: “The relevant organizations carefully considered ways to provide comfort to the officers and men and… it was agreed during meetings among members of the Army Officers’ Bureau at this Consulate and the military police… to establish… military comfort stations (in actual fact, brothels) at various locations on the front, as part of the installations there.” The Chief of Police at the Shanghai Consulate-General sent a specific request to relevant authorities in Japan that they facilitate the work of agents after they arrived in Japan to recruit women. In early 1938, agents canvassed in different parts of Japan, hoping to employ 3,000 women to serve in the Imperial Army’s comfort stations in Shanghai. Their efforts were criticized by the police in different parts of Japan, who equated the agents’ efforts with kidnapping unsuspecting women and said that they were tarnishing the honor of the Imperial Army. The reaction of the Director of the Police Bureau of the Home Ministry was to issue a memorandum on 23 February 1938, stipulating that all recruited women had already to be involved in prostitution in Japan, be at least 21 years of age, and obtain permission from their parent or guardian to go overseas. On 4 March the same year, the Adjutant of the Army Ministry issued a notice with the following instructions: “In recruiting women domestically to work in the military comfort stations to be set up in the areas affected by the China Incident {the contemporary Japanese term for the expansion of hostilities in China into a full-scale ground war in August 1937}, it is feared that some people have claimed to be acting with the military’s consent and have damaged the honor of the army, inviting the misunderstanding of the general public….In the future, armies in the field will control the recruiting of women and will use scrupulous care in selecting people to carry out this task. This task will be 4 performed in close cooperation with the military police or local police force of the area.” (Quoted from Yoshimi, Yoshiaki, “Comfort Women”, 2000, Columbia University Press; p58-59) The stipulation that the women must be at least 21 was made because the International Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Women and Children, which Japan had ratified, prohibited the prostitution of minors. As the number of comfort stations increased rapidly, the Home Ministry and the Army Ministry found themselves increasingly involved in the issue. A document compiled within the Police Bureau of the Ministry of Home Affairs, dated 4 November 1938, contains a request that agents be designated in different prefectures to recruit 400 women: 100 from Osaka Prefecture, 50 from Kyoto Prefecture, 100 from Hyogo Prefecture,
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